Friday, July 12, 2013

It's A Cruel Summer

Hello,

Hope you've been enjoying your summer. We know it's been pretty quiet around here, so we thought this might be a good time to fill you in on what's been happening. .

After a short break, we're getting back to playing shows again, starting with our rescheduled radio session on WRSU's Overnight Sensations. We'll be joining Geoffery Pape on air to play a few songs and talk for a bit. The show will air Friday, August 9th at 10:30 PM. So it's like going to a show but it's free, there's no parking and you don't have to leave the house. You just have to stay awake until 10:30. You can do that, right?

In Hurricane Sandy related news, we've got a track coming out on a benefit album next week. My Hometown: a Tribute to NJ is a collection of songs originally recorded by NJ artists covered by an eclectic mix of indie bands. All proceeds will go to the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund. You can pre-order the CD now and you'll be able to download two tracks immediately (The Successful Failures covering Fountains of Wayne and The Paper Jets covering Bruce Springsteen). The CD will be officially released on Tue. July 23rd on the FDR label. Our selection was a personal favorite - Yo La Tengo's "Upside Down". We had a great time recording it with Chris and Peter of The Anderson Council - Peter even contributed the excellent backing vocal on our version, so be sure to give it a listen.

We have a second song coming out this summer, and once again, it's a favorite from the 90's. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Jersey based micro-indie label Dromedary Records. To celebrate, they're releasing From ’93 ‘Til Infinity: A Dromedary Records Compilation, a deluxe vinyl double-LP, featuring more than a dozen artists performing cover versions of seminal indie rock songs from the year 1993. Like My Hometown, we're very excited to have contributed a track to this fine collection. Since the plan is to keep the track listing a secret until the album comes out, we won't reveal what song we contributed, but you might be able to guess.

Before signing off, we wanted to take a minute to talk about Maxwells.

As you probably already know, Maxwells will be closing its doors forever on July 31st. We've seen a number of clubs come and go, but this isn't just another club. Simply stated, Maxwells is the cornerstone of the New Jersey independent music community. As Ira Kaplan eloquently put it during Yo La Tengo's final Maxwells set, "without this club, this band does not exist". While Yo La Tengo (and undoubtedly, The Feelies) are inextricably linked to Maxwells, I think a lot of bands and musicians share a similar sentiment. I remember talking about playing there before we had even played our first show; it was one of our first goals as a band. We held both of our record release shows at Maxwells because we knew it was always a good time there - as performers, as members of the crowd, as dinner patrons. As we've mentioned before, we have important history that will always be connected to 1039 Washington Street.

For all of the great memories, all the shows (and all the free dinners) and for everything you did, we sincerely thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you Todd Abramson for booking us - the first time and every time. Thank you Carson and all the other wonderful sound people we've worked with over the years. Thank you to the hosts and hostesses, waiters and waitresses and all the bartenders, cooks and staff for making it the special place that it truly is.